In “Shall We Dance,” director Peter Chelsom’s American revamp of the popular Japanese import of 1997, Richard Gere is fugitive estate lawyer John Clark, who deserts a commuter train in Chicago one evening in order to investigate a dance studio that attracts his eye.
To be precise, he’s attracted by the sight of an exotic and pensive beauty in the window. She turns out to be an instructor, Paulina, a standoffish role for Jennifer Lopez. Preoccupied with personal and professional setbacks that are slightly illuminated in flashbacks, Paulina is not the sunniest of mentors at Mitzi’s Ballroom Dance School.
Mitzi, ungallantly defamed as a token boozer, is portrayed by Anita Gillette, who deserves a more generous appraisal. Once Clark becomes a grateful member of the student body, it seems a little thoughtless not to advance him as a business angel for Mitzi’s, rumored to be on the ropes financially.
In fact, both Clark and his oblivious spouse, Beverly (Susan Sarandon), a chic executive at Saks, are considerably better fixed than their Japanese counterparts, an accountant and a housewife. The original version is avidly followed, but something is lost in translation. The unfamiliarity of the Japanese performers made it easier to accept them as ordinary people with endearing double lives, expressed in a passion for ballroom dancing. The specific Japanese wackiness may also be irreplaceable; the characters were bucking social taboos and inhibitions that can’t be duplicated in a Chicago context.
Even so, the pretense that the actors are ordinary people in search of companionship or elegance on the dance floor pays some humorous dividends. This conceit is more flattering than the condescension that distorts the brash personality attributed to Lisa Ann Walter’s Bobbie and the slapstick excess required of Stanley Tucci’s Link, a schizo zany, nondescript at work and madcap on the dance floor.
It is satisfying to contemplate Mr. Gere as a respectable, privileged specimen who discovers that the vague discontent in his life can be cured by an avocation as civilized as dancing. The Clark marriage is depicted as stable but a trifle stagnant. The hero’s infatuation with Paulina is wistful rather than treacherous. It’s never meant to turn anyone’s life upside down. The consummation occurs in a highlight dance sequence: Paulina guides Clark through a private tango lesson, allowing both partners to sublimate a romantic attraction that scarcely merits a carnal payoff.
Despite some missteps, “Shall We Dance” proves a diverting Hollywood entertainment.
***
TITLE: “Shall We Dance”
RATING: PG-13 (Occasional comic vulgarity and sexual allusions; fleeting profanity)
CREDITS: Directed by Peter Chelsom. Screenplay by Audrey Wells, based on the 1997 Japanese film “Shall We Dance?” Cinematography by John de Boorman. Production design by Caroline Hanania. Costume design by Sophe de Rakoff Carbonell. Choreography by John O’Connell. Music by Gabriel Yared and John Altman
RUNNING TIME:106 minutes
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
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